THE COLLECTION

An exhibition by Work in Progress Textile Group

in May 2022 at Courtyard Art Gallery, Hertford.

Each artist has developed a body of ideas relating either to a personal collection, or to a museum collection.

 

Whilst sorting out haberdashery drawers I came across a little battered old toffee tin from my late mother’s belongings

containing a collection of buckles. A buckle is a fastening, a means of joining, but what interested me were the shapes of these items. My designs from this collection involved working with shape, using repetition, shadows and the negative spaces, but also echoing the essential threading-through feature of a buckle.

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A different sort of collection is that held by a gallery or

museum. I was privileged to be able to look up closely and

handle an exquisitely embroidered tablecloth by May Morris in the 1900s from the collection of Crafts Study Centre. It is worked on white linen with pale blue silk thread in a patterned leaves and stem design. It was interesting to respond to the tablecloth by considering the pattern shapes, the drape of material, the stitches, and its use. I tried to extract some of the patterns and marks made by stitches on the tablecloth to suggest a more contemporary context for them, for example, on tableware.

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I have worked in felt and linen, with cotton and silk threads,

incorporating some wire, and approached the work by piecing and applique.

 

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